This invention is concerned with beam clamps and more particularly with an improved beam clamp having advantages to the manufacturer and to the user.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 2,354,107, granted July 18, 1944, a beam clamp is disclosed comprising a pair of arms suspended from a ring, the arms having jaws for engaging the flanges of a beam. Although the beam clamp of my prior patent serves its intended purposes admirably, it has certain characteristics that increase the cost both to the manufacturer and to the user. First, the ring for suspending the arms is formed from a single rod of circular cross-section which must be bent to its final circular form after it has been inserted through holes in the arms. Then the ends of the ring must be abutted and welded together. The bending operation with the arms in place is cumbersome, and the welding operation is difficult and expensive. Excessive material at the weld must be chipped away. Second, the jaws, which are integral with the arms or welded in place, are difficult to replace when worn. Jaw replacement requires an expensive flame cutting operation, and it is frequently less expensive to replace the whole beam clamp.